Improvement of Oxygen Transfer Efficiency in Diffused Aeration Systems Using Liquid-Film ...

31 Pages·2012·0.68 MB·English

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Improvement of Oxygen Transfer
Efficiency in Diffused Aeration Systems
Using Liquid-Film-Forming Apparatus
Tsuyoshi Imai and Hua Zhu
Division of Environmental Science and Engineering,
Graduate School of Science and Engineering,
Yamaguchi University
Japan
1. Introduction
Currently, aerobic bio-treatment processes, in which activated sludge system is at the center
of the attention, are extensively applied in sewage treatment plants around the world. For
activated sludge process, the diffused aeration has been thought to be one of the most
important and indispensable operational units. However, a major concern of this
operational methodology is that a large amount of compressed air has to be consumed in a
diffused aeration system owing to the low oxygen transfer efficiency in water. It has been
previously demonstrated that more than 40 % of the total power consumption in sewage
treatment plants in Japan is related to power consumption associated with aeration alone.
Therefore, the development of highly efficient aeration strategies has presently emerged as
an intriguing research topic in the field of energy savings.
The oxygen transfer in diffused aeration systems can be divided into two processes: bubble
oxygen transfer and surface oxygen transfer. Bubble oxygen transfers into the water across
the bubble-water interface as the bubbles rise from the diffuser to the water surface. Surface
oxygen transfer exclusively occurs at the air-water interface situating on the water surface,
originating from vigorous turbulence induced by bubble-plume motion and water
circulation. Wilhelms and Martin’s findings indicated that approximately one-third of the
total volumetric mass transfer coefficient (k a) is responsible for the volumetric mass
L t
transfer coefficient for surface transfer (k a) [1]. McWhirter and Hutter determined that a
L s
representative k a is 25-33 % of the k a in a fine bubble diffuser system and 11-17 % of the
L s L t
k a in a coarse bubble diffuser system [2]. DeMoyer et al. ever reported that the k a is 59-85
L t L s
% of the volumetric mass transfer coefficient for bubble surface (k a ) [3].
L b
Bubble transfer and surface transfer both contribute remarkably to the total oxygen transfer
in the submerged aeration system. However, bubble transfer is the predominant means of
oxygen transfer. So far, considerable research interests have been focused on the
enhancement of the bubble transfer efficiency by developing a wide variety of new aeration
techniques, including the utilization of high-purity-oxygen aeration system [4-10], deep
aeration system [11-13] and fine bubble diffuser [14-17], etc. Nevertheless, only a little effort
has been devoted to the research on the improvement of surface transfer efficiency.
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342 Mass Transfer - Advanced Aspects
The improvement of oxygen transfer capability across water surface is pursued in this
study. The objective is fulfilled with a liquid-film-forming apparatus (LFFA) by pre-forming
an aggregative entity in the atmosphere near water surface. This entity is constructed of a
large quantity of air-filled gas bubbles with the periphery of each gas bubble surrounded by
an ultrathin layer of liquid film, thereby enlarging notably the effective interfacial contact
area between air and water. Consequently, energy consumption problem can be solved by
reducing the aeration depth down to 1 m or less without trading off the ideal aeration
efficacy in a diffused aeration system. Based on the concept above, lab-scale experimental
apparatus is designed in this study and the efficiency of oxygen transfer in this novel
apparatus is determined either numerically or experimentally. Furthermore, a number of
factors affecting the efficiency of oxygen transfer are also examined in detail, and the
feasibility is preliminarily explored for the application in wastewater treatment plants.
2. Novel idea: Liquid-film aeration system (LFAS)
Liquid-film aeration system (LFAS) which means that LFFA developed in this study is
installed on the water surface of existing aeration tanks. Under no extra energy consumption
circumstances, water body is wholly membranized into a liquid film (i.e., a thin water film
located at the water surface-air interface) by LFFA, thus realizing the oxygen supply
towards liquid-film-formed water body simultaneously from the interior and exterior of the
liquid film. The efficiency of atmospheric oxygen enrichment is improved as a consequence
of dual-fold oxygen provisions. Namely, in addition to the existing oxygen supply efficiency
of an aeration tank, the oxygen supply efficiency of LFAS is increased by one more term
from the LFFA. As a result, the oxygen supply efficiency of the entire aeration system is
enhanced.
Schematic drawings of the LFFA are illustrated in Fig. 1. The LFFA, made of plastics here,
has a simple configuration constituting three sections: (1) trumpet-shaped capture part as a
gas collector for converging the released gas bubbles; (2) airlift part, mainly made up of
some pipes orienting parallel to each other, aiming to facilitate the relevant liquid film
formation near the water surface and (3) effluent part which alternately reserves and
discharges the treated water involving higher-concentration dissolved oxygen (DO).
Optionally, the LFFA can be compatibly installed in an existing aeration system. The whole
set of equipment is denoted as liquid-film aeration system (Fig. 2). The joint interface
between the capture and airlift parts of this LFFA is flush with the water surface with the
former just submerged in water and the latter completely exposed to air. During the
operating process, the gas bubbles released from a diffuser first rise to the airlift part
through the capture part and then self-assemble into a macroscopic aggregated system of
gas bubbles over the airlift part. This macroscopic ensemble of gas bubbles floating in the
atmosphere in close proximity to the water surface are microscopically comprised of the
combination of numerous agglomerated gas bubbles and a fraction of the bulk water
(serving as liquid-film boundary layer surrounding each individual bubble herein)
entrained by the ascending bubbles. In this case, air fills both the exterior and interior of
these bubbles as well as the thin liquid film, as described above. Hence, oxygen transfer can
take place both across the inner interface (gas bubble and liquid film) and the outer interface
(atmosphere and liquid film) of the thin liquid film, which means that the available
interfacial contact area between oxygen and water can be greatly multiplied, thereby
promoting effectively oxygen transfer efficiency. Subsequently, oxygenic water is

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Improvement of Oxygen Transfer Efficiency in
Diffused Aeration Systems Using Liquid-Film-Forming Apparatus 343
discharged downstream from the effluent part. Furthermore, LFAS can supply oxygen
either in a once-through mode in the case of which the effluent part is directly connected to
another water reservoir, or in a recycle mode in the case of which the effluent part is directly
connected to the original water tank itself.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the LFFA

Fig. 2. Liquid-film aeration system (LFAS)
The picture of the actual experimental apparatus is shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 4 reveals the form of
a liquid film.

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344 Mass Transfer - Advanced Aspects

Profile Planform
Fig. 3. Lab-scale LFFA

Fig. 4. The picture of forming liquid film
LFAS possesses the following characteristics.
Due to the superior oxygen supply efficiency, even if the aeration depth is as low as less
than 1 m, a sufficient amount of oxygen can still be provided. In contrast, the conventional
aeration tank necessitates a depth of 4-5 m to achieve a commensurate oxygen supply.
Therefore, LFAS is a very energy-saving aeration system.
Although some energy is consumed as a consequence of the friction between the airlift tube
wall of LFFA and surrounding water body, we suggest that this portion of energy
consumption is far below the wasted energy in the conventional aeration system. Moreover,
the energy wasted in the traditional aeration system can be re-used for the oxygen supply.
Therefore, this novel LFAS-based method definitely opens an energy-efficient pathway to
improve the oxygen transfer efficiency.

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Improvement of Oxygen Transfer Efficiency in
Diffused Aeration Systems Using Liquid-Film-Forming Apparatus 345
LFFA has a very simple structure, and its production cost is very low. Optionally, it can be
made from recycled plastics. As another advantage, this apparatus itself does not consume
any power, and can be easily installed on the water surface of existing aeration tank without
large-scale retrofitting. Thus this very cheap setup is well suited for the application in the
recycle-type society.
3. Pre-experiment on the LFFA
3.1 Introduction
In order to evaluate the oxygen transfer performance of the LFFA, under the experimental
conditions of different bubble diameters and different aeration amounts, comparative
experiments are conducted on a liquid-film aeration system and conventional aeration
system by respectively using de-oxygenated water and activated sludge.
3.2 Experimental methods
The diffuser is set in a 28.5 cm deep and 15 L capacity cylindrical water tank with a surface
area of 526.3 cm2. Its location is at the middle of the experimental water tank bottom with an
aeration depth of 26 cm. The liquid-film apparatus with a pipe diameter of 1 cm, effective
height of 10 cm and cross-sectional area of 12.56 cm2 is mounted on the surface of a water
tank. During the operational period, single-pass fashion is employed for this apparatus.
After measurement of DO concentration and temperature in the initially de-oxygenated
water, a given amount of aeration is provided and the aeration lasts for 4 min. The DO
concentration in the discharged water from the effluent part is periodically measured at a
sampling interval of 30 s. The amount of the effluent water is calculated before the aeration
is suspended. To prevent the water surface in the water tank from going downwards, the
volume of the de-oxygenated water equivalents to that of the treated water is periodically
poured into the water tank to maintain the water surface’s balance throughout the
experiment. As a control, the conventional aeration experiment is also conducted at the
same water disposal volume, aeration depth and aeration duration as the liquid-film
aeration experiment. The experimental setup is demonstrated in Fig. 5.

Effective height Airlift pipe diameter
Aeration depth
Cross-sectional area

Air diffuser Air pump
Fig. 5. Single-pass LFFA apparatus

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346 Mass Transfer - Advanced Aspects
A 0.08 g/L sodium sulfite solution is used to chemically de-oxygenate the tank water to
around 0 mg/L at the start of each test. The activated sludge is taken from Ube Eastern
Water Cleanup Center. DO concentrations are determined by YSI Model DO meter. Two
types of air pumps (Iwaki APN-215CV-1 Model and Secoh DF-406 Model) are used herein.
Two kinds of air diffusers are selected providing average gas bubble diameters of 3 and 6
mm, respectively. A series of the combinations of diffuser and air pump give rise to different
aeration amounts, as shown in Table 1. The average bubble diameter is determined by
averaging the diameters of several digital-camera-taken gas bubbles just released from the
diffuser.

Average bubble diameter of a
Air pump type Air flow rate
diffuser
3 mm APN-215CV-1 12.8 L/min
3 mm DF-406 18.6 L/min
6 mm APN-215CV-1 13.5 L/min
6 mm DF-406 19.2 L/min
* Adjusting aeration amounts contingent on different experimental conditions.
Table 1. The air flow rate as a function of diffuser and air pump types*
The experimental results are compared in terms of DO saturation rate and oxygen transfer
rate, both of which are calculated by the following Equations (1) and (2),
DO
DO saturation rate (%) ＝ act×100% (1)
DO
sat
Oxygen mass transfer rate (mg-O2/min)= (DOact−DO0)×QL (2)
where DO is the measured DO average value in mg/L, DO is the saturated DO
act. sat.
concentration in water at 1 atm in mg/L, DO is the initial DO concentration in mg/L, and
o
Q is the flow rate of the effluent water in L/min.
L
3.3 Results and discussion
3.3.1 DO saturation rate
Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 respectively show the experimental data using de-oxygenated water and
DO saturation rate using activated sludge.
As shown in Figs. 6 and 7, independently of air flow rate and aerated bubble diameter, it is
suggested from both de-oxygenated water and activated sludge experiments that the
effluent DO concentration associated with liquid-film aeration is always higher than that by
conventional aeration. While de-oxygenated water is in service, conventional aeration yields
a DO saturation rate of 80%, in contrast to up to ca. 95% by way of liquid-film aeration. Even
in the case of activated sludge, the corresponding value of over 90% is achieved via liquid-
film aeration. It is found that in comparison with the conventional aeration by using
continuously recirculated aeration to enhance DO concentration, for the liquid-film aeration,
the DO content in the effluent can be raised up to the saturation state by only aerating once
the effluent, thereby indicating strong oxygen supply capability of the latter.

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Improvement of Oxygen Transfer Efficiency in
Diffused Aeration Systems Using Liquid-Film-Forming Apparatus 347
Liquid-film type Conventional aeration
(cid:14984)(cid:14983)(cid:14983)
%) (cid:14991)(cid:14983)
e (
n rat (cid:14989)(cid:14983)
o
ati
ur (cid:14987)(cid:14983)
at
O s
D (cid:14985)(cid:14983)
(cid:14983)
(cid:14984)(cid:14985)(cid:14981)(cid:14991) (cid:14984)(cid:14991)(cid:14981)(cid:14989) (cid:14984)(cid:14986)(cid:14981)(cid:14988) (cid:14984)(cid:14992)(cid:14981)(cid:14985)
Air flow rate (L/min)

Fig. 6. The comparison of DO saturation rate (de-oxygenated water)

Liquid-film type Conventional aeration
(cid:14984)(cid:14983)(cid:14983)
%) (cid:14991)(cid:14983)
e (
n rat (cid:14989)(cid:14983)
o
ati
ur (cid:14987)(cid:14983)
at
O s
D (cid:14985)(cid:14983)
(cid:14983)
(cid:14984)(cid:14985)(cid:14981)(cid:14991) (cid:14984)(cid:14991)(cid:14981)(cid:14989) (cid:14984)(cid:14986)(cid:14981)(cid:14988) (cid:14984)(cid:14992)(cid:14981)(cid:14985)
Air flow rate (L/min)

Fig. 7. The comparison of DO saturation rate (activated sludge)
3.3.2 Oxygen mass transfer rate
Figs. 8 and 9 show the oxygen mass transfer rates for the de-oxygenated water and activated
sludge, respectively. As shown in these experimental findings, whether for de-oxygenated
water or activated sludge, the smaller the gas bubble diameter or the higher the aeration
amount at the same gas bubble diameter is, the faster the oxygen transfer rate is. While the
de-oxygenated water is in use, oxygen transfer rate of liquid-film aeration increases by 30%
in regard to conventional aeration. In the case of activated sludge, an increase of 10% is
correspondingly observed.
As indicated in Figs. 8 and 9, liquid-film apparatus only needs an aeration depth of a few
tens of centimeters to provide adequate amount of oxygen. However, 4-5 m in aeration
depth is required for the conventional aeration apparatus to supply comparable oxygen
content. Hence, liquid-film apparatus is regarded as a very energy-efficient setup.

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348 Mass Transfer - Advanced Aspects
Liquid-film type Conventional aeration
(cid:14989)(cid:14983)
e
at
er r
ansfmin)(cid:14987)(cid:14983)
ss trO/2
mag-
en (m(cid:14985)(cid:14983)
g
y
x
O
(cid:14983)
(cid:14984)(cid:14985)(cid:14981)(cid:14991) (cid:14984)(cid:14991)(cid:14981)(cid:14989) (cid:14984)(cid:14986)(cid:14981)(cid:14988) (cid:14984)(cid:14992)(cid:14981)(cid:14985)
Air flow rate (L/min)

Fig. 8. The comparison of oxygen mass transfer rate (de-oxygenated water)

Liquid-film type Conventional aeration
(cid:14989)(cid:14983)
e
at
er r
ansfmin)(cid:14987)(cid:14983)
ss trO/2
mag-
gen (m(cid:14985)(cid:14983)
y
x
O
(cid:14983)
(cid:14984)(cid:14985)(cid:14981)(cid:14991) (cid:14984)(cid:14991)(cid:14981)(cid:14989) (cid:14984)(cid:14986)(cid:14981)(cid:14988) (cid:14984)(cid:14992)(cid:14981)(cid:14985)
Air flow rate (L/min)

Fig. 9. The comparison of oxygen mass transfer rate (activated sludge)
4. Effect of the structural parameters of the LFFA
4.1 Introduction
According to the preceding pre-experiment on the LFFA, the basic factors influencing liquid
film formation involve airlift pipe diameter, cross-sectional area, effective height, air flow
rate, gas bubble diameter and aeration depth, etc. This section will discuss experimentally
the effect of every factor on liquid film formation in detail, and the optimal design
parameter of LFFA will then be identified.
Fig. 10 demonstrates a variety of factors impacting the liquid film formation. Each factor is
defined as follows. Effective height refers to the length of airlift, and +/- symbols represent
the lengths above/below the water surface, respectively. Aeration depth represents the
distance from the diffuser to water surface, and cross-sectional area means the cross-
sectional area of the airlift part.

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Improvement of Oxygen Transfer Efficiency in
Diffused Aeration Systems Using Liquid-Film-Forming Apparatus 349
Airlift pipe diameter
Effective height
Aeration depth
Cross-sectional area

Gas bubble diameter Air flow rate
Fig. 10. The factors affecting the liquid film formation
4.2 Effect of altering gas bubble diameter on oxygen supply efficiency
4.2.1 Experimental conditions
In this trial, gas bubble diameter is varied by changing the type of diffuser. Diffuser can
offer 2 kinds of gas bubbles with a diameter of 3 and 6 mm, respectively. The various
combinations of diffuser and air pump as well as air flow rate are listed in Table 1. The
average gas bubble diameter is determined by averaging the diameters of many digital-
camera-taken gas bubbles located near the diffuser.
The parameter of the single-pass LFFA apparatus is listed as follows: 4, 6 and 10 mm in pipe
diameter, 10 cm in effective height, and 12.56 cm2 in cross-sectional area. The rig of
experimental apparatus and experimental conditions are respectively shown in Fig. 11 and
Table 1.

Fig. 11. Experimental apparatus relating to the variation in gas bubble diameter

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350 Mass Transfer - Advanced Aspects
4.2.2 Experimental methods
The LFFA operating in a single-pass manner is set in a 28.5 cm deep and 15 L cylindrical
tank with a surface area of 526.3 cm2. After measurement of DO concentration and
temperature in the initially deoxygenated water, a given amount of aeration is provided and
lasts for 4 min. The DO concentration in the discharged water from the effluent part is
periodically measured at an interval of 30 s. The amount of the effluent water is calculated
before aeration is stopped. To prevent the water surface in the water tank from going
downwards, the volume of the de-oxygenated water equivalent to that of the treated water
is periodically poured into the water tank to maintain the water surface’s balance
throughout the experiment.
DO concentrations are determined with YSI Model DO meter. Air pump includes Iwaki
APN-215CV-1 Model and Secoh DF-406 Model.
4.2.3 Calculation methods
The parameters such as DO saturation rate, oxygen transfer rate and oxygen transfer mass
per unit air aeration volume are used for evaluating the experimental results in this
experiment. The calculation is based on Equations (1), (2) and (3).
EO =(DOact−QDO0)×QL (3)
G
Herein, E stands for oxygen transfer mass per unit air aeration volume in mg-O /L-air,
0 2
DO is the actually measured average DO concentration in mg/L, DO is the initial DO
act. o
concentration in mg/L, Q is the effluent flow rate in L/min, Q is air flow rate in L/min.
L G
4.2.4 Results and discussion
The experimental results of the DO saturation rate, effluent flow rate, oxygen mass transfer
rate and oxygen transfer mass per unit air aeration volume are respectively shown in Figs.
12, 13, 14 and 15.

Gas bubble diameter (cid:14986) mm (cid:14989) mm
(cid:14984)(cid:14983)(cid:14983)
%) (cid:14991)(cid:14983)
e (
n rat (cid:14989)(cid:14983)
o
ati (cid:14987)(cid:14983)
ur
at
O s (cid:14985)(cid:14983)
D
(cid:14983)
(cid:14987) (cid:14989) (cid:14984)(cid:14983) (cid:14987) (cid:14989) (cid:14984)(cid:14983)
Airlift pipe diameter (mm)
A(cid:15015)(cid:15013)(cid:14980)(cid:14985)(cid:14984)(cid:14988) (cid:15003)(cid:15005)(cid:14980)(cid:14987)(cid:14983)(cid:14989)
Air pump type

Fig. 12. Effect of gas bubble diameter on the DO saturation rate

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